Jacob Ford was the second son of Jacob and Hannah (Baldwin) Ford, of Morristown, New Jersey, and a grandson of John Ford who came from Duxbury, Massachusetts, to Woodbridge, New Jersey, about 1701.
His father, tavern-owner and iron- manufacturer, was long a county judge and built the oak-planked, ship-calked house which became Washington’s headquarters.
After attending the local school, the younger Jacob went into business.
By 1764 he had become the owner of the Middle Forge near Morristown and before 1770 he had bought 2, 000 acres north of Denmark, building a forge and a house there, and somewhat later a stone mansion at Mt. Hope. But about 1773 he sold his property to John Jacob Faesch, and moved to Morristown to look after his father’s interests.
By aid of a loan from the Provincial Congress of £2, 000 on good security, without interest, they built early in 1776 their famous powder-mill in the thicket by the Whippanong River near the Morristown-Whippany road, not far from their own home. Colonel Benoni Hathaway managed both mill and storage magazine, near the town green. Fieldpicces ambushed in Hathaway’s yard commanded the approach.
The mill produced “good powder and in useful quantities, ” one ton per month, at agreed prices, enabling the owners to repay the loan. Ford did military service at Bergentown, the Helderbergs, and at Albany, earning the commendation of Robert Yates, who wrote on October 28, 1776: “We are all much pleased with your activity and spirit” (Peter Force, American Archives, 5 ser. , Ill, 1853, 579).
He beat off British raids on Morristown so successfully and captured so much material, that Matthias Williamson wrote to Washington, December 8, 1776, “it is chiefly owing to his zeal in the American cause, as well as his great influence with the people, that the appearance of defence at this post has been kept up” (Ibid. , pp. 1120, 1189).
While repelling Leslie’s brigade at Springfield, December 17, 1776, he caught “mortal cold” in the “Mud Rounds”; and at Morristown, December 31, he fell from his horse on parade to die eleven days later of pneumonia. Washington ordered a military funeral with full honors, an unusual tribute for army contractors.
On December 18, 1795, the county court ordered halfpay for his widow from January 10, 1777 (Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, April 1917).
He is buried beside his father, who died January 19, 1777, in the first Presbyterian churchyard at Morristown, and his monument records an ability, character, and humanity in which those who knew him implicitly trusted.
On January 27, 1762, he married Theodosia Johnes by whom he had four sons and two daughters.
